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What Should We Ask of Israel Now?

“An Agenda for Mr. Netanyahu” (editorial, May 12) unfairly puts too much onus on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for progress in Middle East issues. This can be summed up by your statement “Just think what might happen if he declared an end to settlement construction and an early return to substantive final status negotiations.”

What a short memory you have. Israel has taken initiatives for peace on several occasions in recent years — the unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, the Camp David offer of a Palestinian state to Yasir Arafat, the unilateral withdrawal from and dismantling of settlements in Gaza, and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s recent settlement proposal to Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president. None of these actions produced even minor moves toward peace from the other side; indeed, they led to greater Islamic radicalism.

That is not to say that Israel has no obligations. It does, and we are convinced that when the time is ripe, Israel once again will demonstrate its interest in peace through concessions. To minimize the obstacles on the Palestinian side and to play down this history of Israeli steps is to inappropriately set Israel up as the scapegoat if peace should not emerge in rapid order.

Glen S. LewyNatl. Chmn., Anti-Defamation LeagueNew York, May 12, 2009

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To the Editor:

Yes, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has an agenda. It is to provide peace and security for Israel. It is to ensure continued survival for his country and its people.

Continued survival of the United States and the American people is not at stake. Israel, facing an existential threat to its existence, cannot ignore Iranian actions and words.

The United States does not face this same threat. Perhaps Mr. Netanyahu’s ideas, when presented directly to Mr. Obama, will begin a process that will aid the interests of both countries. Speculating and commenting on what these ideas may be certainly will not.

Peter YurowitzHighland Park, N.J., May 12, 2009

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To the Editor:

Thanks for not holding back on concerns that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may well be uncooperative. Thanks also for standing up for American interests instead of Israel’s.

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It’s critical that we not let a nation that consistently defies our presidents and our State Department enmesh us in another war, and that our interests come ahead of any loyalty to Israel.

Unfortunately, the American media in the past haven’t leaned hard enough on Israel. That has helped lead to entanglements we have now, and has allowed Israel to box itself into its current strangled (and strangling) situation.

No one has ever asked anything of Israel other than following international law — which now involves torturous removal of illegal settlers from all over the West Bank and possibly civil war. Yet if peace is ever to come to “regular” Israelis, and certainly to the beleaguered Palestinians whose lands have been carved up and served to settlers who care nothing about peace for either Israelis or Palestinians, then the Saudi peace plan from 2002, recently renewed, needs to be vigorously pursued, as you suggest.

Andrea WhitmoreFairway, Kan., May 12, 2009

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To the Editor:

It would be right for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze further settlement construction in the West Bank and to dismantle roadblocks between Palestinian cities and towns not needed for security, as you suggest. It would also be right for him to commit to negotiations toward a two-state solution, as have prior Israeli governments.

With respect to Iran, the Israeli leader should encourage Washington to reach out to Iran in an effort to ending Tehran’s nuclear program. But if President Obama’s diplomatic efforts and subsequent tougher sanctions fail, then the president and the world should understand and support Israel’s engagement in military action, if it so undertakes, to halt or delay Iran’s capability of dropping a nuclear bomb on Tel Aviv.

One Holocaust is enough for the Jewish people.

Seymour D. ReichNew York, May 12, 2009

The writer is a former past chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

A version of this letter appears in print on , on Page A32 of the New York edition with the headline: What Should We Ask of Israel Now?. Today's Paper|Subscribe